Wednesday, December 30, 2015

WASHINGTON - United States marines have refused to go on military missions with the famous "robotic mules," designed by a Google-owned company and Pentagon with the objective of carrying heavy material for the army

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The marines do not want to go to battlefields with the robotic mules - a four legged robot capable of carrying almost 200 kg (441 pounds) - as they make "too much noise," making them incompatible with military discretion, according to the magazine Military.com Tuesday.

"As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself. They took it as it was: a loud robot that's going to give away their position," said Marines spokesperson Kyle Olson.

In 2012, the Pentagon announced having designed the robotic mule with a carrying capacity of up to 180 kg (397 pounds) and with an ability to recharge batteries of radios and electronic military devices.

The robotic mule LS3 had been tested in different types of terrain that can be encountered during combat and also in different weather conditions including snow and rain.

SAN JUAN – Three police, two of them women, were shot and killed Monday in Puerto Rico by a fellow officer during a heated argument at the Police Command in Ponce, a city on the south side of the Caribbean island.

Police reported that Lieut. Luz Soto, Maj. Frank Roman and patrolwoman Rosario Hernandez were gunned down by Candelario Rivera, a fellow officer stationed at the Ponce Police Command, in circumstances still under investigation.

The building where the Ponce Police Command is located was evacuated for security reasons after Rivera said he had planted an explosive device inside.

Explosive Division agents carried out an inspection of the building and of Rivera’s car.

Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla visited the scene to find out in person what had happened.

Rivera, who was presumably on sick leave, was arrested immediately after the shooting and his two guns were seized.

The cop in custody was taken to the Ponce Drugs Division before being admitted to a nearby hospital.

MEXICO CITY – Federal District security forces have rescued a baby found abandoned in a Mexico City park, authorities said Monday.

The incident occurred in the Capulin suburb in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo at around 8 p.m. on Sunday, when upon arriving at the park, the patrolmen heard a baby’s crying that came from somewhere in the gardens,” the municipal government said in a communique.As they looked for where the infant’s cries were coming from, they found a green plastic bag on the grass.Upon opening it they found inside a baby boy who had been born approximately 15 days before. They wrapped him up to keep him warm and called for emergency services.Paramedics took the newborn to Tacubaya Children’s Hospital for a general checkup.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

NCRI – A young Iranian woman committed suicide on Monday by jumping off a bridge in Tehran.

The woman was not identified by name, but the regime’s state media reported that she was 25 years old.

She took her life at 11.20 am by jumping off the 10-meter-heigh pedestrian bridge in Tehran’s Resalat Square.

In another case of suicide, two girls who had been discharged from a girls’ social welfare center in East Azerbaijan Province, north-west Iran, on Friday attempted to take their lives. One of the girls Rava was saved by medics in a hospital in the city of Tabriz while Paria died due to her injuries, the regime’s state news agency IRNA said.

In a separate development, a 45-year-old man on Sunday doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire in a public square in the city of Shush, western Iran.

Poverty, deprivation and suppression in Iran under the mullahs’ regime have driven some people, in particular women and girls, to the point of taking their own lives.

Numerous cases of self-immolation in Iran in recent months have drawn special attention, including the cases of Omid Rashedi, 36, from the south-western city of Ahwaz; Mansour Keyhani, a retired teacher from Sanghar, western Iran; Ali Akbari, 45, a laborer from Tehran; Hamid Farokhi, 43, a street vendor from Tabriz, north-west Iran; and Youness Asakareh, 31, a laborer from Khorramshahr, south-western Iran. In all these cases, the self-immolations had an element of protest against the mullahs' regime.

On average, 11 people commit suicide in Iran every day, the equivalent of three in every 100,000 people,according to the website of the Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Iranian laborers in particular are suffering from poverty, hunger and unemployment while Iran’s great wealth is spent on domestic suppression, antinationalistic polices of export of terrorism and warmongering in the region, and weapons of mass destruction projects or is plundered by the regime’s officials.

As long as the mullahs’ regime is in power, suppression, poverty, hunger, prostitution and addiction will continue in Iran. The sole solution to end such tyranny and oppression is to topple the antihuman regime of the mullahs and establish democracy in Iran.

The police arrested a man in connection with the acid attack on a woman on the Christmas eve at Pariayaram.

The arrested has been identified as Adampoyil James (46), a resident of Pilathara. The police said that the attack was motivated by the woman’s refusal of his offer to marry her, a divorcee and mother of two children. His arrest was recorded late on Monday night.

The woman, identified as Rimsy (29) of Madathil House at Embett near Pariyaram, had been seriously injured in the acid attack while she was going to the local church for the midnight mass on Christmas eve. According to the police, the arrested, wearing Santa Claus costume, ambushed her that night and poured acid he was carrying in a bottle. She has now been admitted to a Mangalore hospital. Her seven-year old son also suffered injuries in the attack.

Two Israeli citizens have been detained by police in Rome for allegedly flying a drone over the Vatican, reports The Local in Italian.

Airspace over the capital was declared a no-drone zone at the start of the jubilee year declared earlier this month by Pope Francis, over fears remote-controlled aircraft could be used in a terrorist attack.

Police patrolling the Vatican area spotted the drone, which contained a high resolution camera, flying over the Tiber River and St Peter’s Square on Sunday morning, Roma Today reported.

The police reportedly found the men on a bridge near St Peter’s. One of them was holding the drone’s remote control.

The men were taken to questioning and will likely face charges for violating the drone ban.

Security forces have been put on high alert due to fears of jihadist attacks like the Paris massacre of November 13.

WASHINGTON – Real estate magnate and Republican frontrunner for the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections, the controversial Donald Trump, said on Monday that former U.S. President Bill Clinton has a “terrible record of women abuse.”

Trump tweeted the statement as part of an attack on the former president’s wife, Hillary Clinton, who is the Democrat frontrunner for the 2016 elections.

“If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she’s wrong!” Trump tweeted.

Trump did not back his comment with any examples and is the latest in his war of words with the Clinton family over matters of gender and sex discrimination.

Last weekend, Trump accused Bill Clinton (president from 1993 to 2001) of “sexism” after reports emerged about the former president’s participation in his wife’s presidential campaign.

“Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but HE’S DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so inappropriate!” Trump tweeted on Saturday.

The real estate magnate, often accused of misogyny since he launched his campaign in June, has used insults and provocation as his main battle strategy, which for now has not dented his popularity in the surveys, which he continues to lead.

LA PAZ – Bolivian police rescued a pair of accused robbers from an enraged mob in the central part of the Chapare region before local residents could burn them alive.

The incident occurred early Sunday morning, when two young men identified by the initials J.C.O.H. and E.A.S.P. stole a woman’s motorcycle and were cornered by her neighbors, the Chapare police chief, Daniel Merida, told the state-run ABI news agency.

“A crowd of about 150 to 200 enraged people wanted to kill the two young men by beating them and setting them on fire,” Merida said.

Police were alerted to the lynching by telephone and managed to arrive on the scene in time to prevent the deaths of the two thieves, who had been tied to a post.

After talking with the townspeople for an hour, the officers were able to rescue the two men, one of whom was taken to a hospital in nearby Villa Tunari and the other to a health center in the city of Cochabamba “due to the seriousness of his injuries,” the police chief said.

Police are investigating whether the pair have criminal records and how the woman acquired the motorcycle, given that she did not have a title for the vehicle.

Lynchings in Bolivia often occur and a de facto death penalty carried out by mobs often prevails, particularly in rural or indigenous parts of the country.

The mobs always claim that they are applying community justice reserved for the country’s Indian population, as recognized in the 2009 Constitution, although the charter does not allow for capital – or even physical forms of – punishment.

This year, there have been 32 recorded lynching attempts in which five alleged criminals died, according to a report presented in early December by the national ombudsman’s office.

OAXACA, Mexico – Gunmen opened fire on a pick-up truck carrying several passengers outside Sola de Vega, a city in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, killing four people, including a baby, and wounding two others over the weekend, state officials told EFE.

The ambush occurred on Sunday in the La Pihua section of Paso Ancho, a community near Sola de Vega and San Vicente Coatlan, in the Sierra Sur region, the Oaxaca Public Safety Secretariat said.

The Nissan double-cab pick-up truck was heading to Sola de Vega after making stops in several cities, the secretariat said in a statement.

Unidentified gunmen hidden in the underbrush and armed with large-caliber weapons opened fire on the vehicle at some distance, hitting it as the driver was completing his trip.

The driver, two adult women and a 7-month-old baby girl were among those killed in the attack, the secretariat said.

Another woman, identified as 38-year-old Cristina Rios Jarquin, and her 3-year-old daughter were wounded in the attack.

The two wounded passengers were transported to the regional hospital in Sola de Vega.

State officials have not provided additional details or a motive for the attack.

Sola de Vega is located about 90 minutes from Oaxaca city, the state capital.

MORELIA, Mexico – Carlos Rosales Mendoza, who founded the Familia Michoacana drug cartel and was a close associate of former Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was killed in western Mexico, officials said.

Rosales Mendoza’s body was found on Monday and he appears to have been tortured, prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan said.

The powerful drug trafficker’s body was discovered along with those of three other men, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office said.

Mexican officials considered Rosales Mendoza a dangerous drug trafficker who had the ability to organize drug gangs and enjoyed the Gulf cartel’s support.

The bodies of Rosales Mendoza and the other three men were found on the Siglo XXI highway, which links Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, and the Pacific coast.

The bodies, which had gunshot wounds and showed signs of torture, were dumped in the parking lot of the toll plaza in Santa Casilda, a town outside the city of Gabriel Zamora.

Rosales Mendoza was arrested in October 2004 at his residence south of Morelia after the government said he organized an attack by more than 40 gunmen on Jan. 5 of that year on the prison in the city of Apatzingan, where 25 inmates, including five extremely dangerous hitmen, escaped.

The drug trafficker left prison in May 2014 and was arrested on gun charges in August, but he managed to post bail.

BEIJING – The Chinese government confirmed on Saturday that it will not renew the press credentials of French journalist Ursula Gauthier of L’Obs magazine because of an article she wrote about terrorism and Beijing’s response to the jihadist attacks in Paris, which consequently obliges the reporter to leave the country before Dec. 31.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang accused Gauthier in a statement of “defending terrorist acts” and of provoking “rage” among the Chinese people with an article published by the French magazine last Nov. 18.

In that story, the correspondent addressed the situation in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, the scene of frequent strife between the ethnic Han Chinese majority and the Muslim Uighur minority, after China declared itself a victim of terrorism following the Paris attacks.

The article sparked a strong rejection by the Chinese government, which summoned the journalist to the Foreign Ministry and canceled the renewal of her press credentials in hopes that she would retract what she reported.

“Since she never seriously apologized to the Chinese people for her erroneous reporting about terrorist acts, it is not right that she should remain in China,” Lu said with reference to Gauthier.

Gauthier’s article talked about the Xinjiang region, which has suffered several attacks in recent years that Chinese authorities associate with jihadist groups, though Uighur groups in exile consider them a reaction to the repression their community has suffered at the hands of the Communist regime.

In the week after the Paris attacks last Nov. 13, the Chinese government asked the international community to consider it another terrorist victim because of the Uighurs, and reported how they attacked a mine in Xinjiang two months earlier on Sept. 18 that had been kept secret until then.

The French correspondent had already been criticized several weeks ago in defamatory articles that appeared in official Chinese dailies and was also targeted with threats in the online editions of those publications.

AUSTIN, Texas – Tornadoes and storms that lashed the Dallas, Texas, area on the weekend left at least 11 people dead and hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed, authorities reported Sunday.

The town hardest hit was Garland, in the northeastern Dallas metropolitan area, where eight people died in a 12-vehicle traffic accident caused by a tornado. Several of the vehicles were blown off the highway, reportedly killing five people inside them.

Another 15 people were transported by ambulance from the accident scene on Highway I30 to hospitals in the area, Garland police spokesman Pedro Barineau said at a press conference.

Emergency crews and local residents are working amid intense rain to repair the damage from the tornadoes, but new tornado and flooding alerts are being issued and meteorologists are predicting heavy winds and a rain- and snowstorm for Sunday night.

Some 600 houses were damaged or destroyed in Garland and 60 people were injured, and authorities are seeking people trapped under the ruins of their homes.

Three people also died in Collin County, northeast of Dallas.

Meanwhile, two people reportedly died in Copeville when a tornado destroyed a gasoline station where they had taken shelter, and a child was reported killed in Blue Ridge, but no further details are available yet on that incident.

Besides the Texas tornadoes, on Saturday authorities reported flooding in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as in southern Ohio and Oklahoma.

The storms in North Texas were the latest in a series of unusual weather events this past week. Fourteen people had already died in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, and with the Texas fatalities, the known death toll now stands at 25.

ASUNCION – At least four people died in two accidents where trees fell onto their vehicles during a powerful wind- and rainstorm that has beset central and southern Paraguay since early Thursday morning, police said.

Three of the victims died when a tree fell onto the pickup truck in which they were riding on the road linking the cities of Caacupe and Asuncion, police spokesmen told a local radio station.

In addition, a woman died when a tree fell onto her as she was riding a motorcycle along a street in Asuncion.

The storm has left several districts of Greater Asuncion without power, especially the southern zone of Ñeembucu, where the wind toppled at least 21 telephone poles, according to the state-run National Electricity Administration, or ANDE.

The storm came as thousands of people for more than a week have been living in rickety shacks in the capital, which they erected after losing their homes to flooding caused by the rising waters of the Paraguay River.

After the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris and the ensuing California shooting rampage, democratic societies are anxiously rushing to impose harsh measures and new anti-terrorism laws to erect a defensive shield in the face of terrorists and extremists. Although these actions aimed at preventing yet another catastrophe in Europe and America are necessary, they actually fall short.

The most important step necessary to bring an end to attacks by terrorist groups is to focus on their roots and stopping the motivating force behind all the sectarian cultures seen in different shapes and forms, from ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Lebanese Hizb’allah and other ruthless and lethal groups that deviously act under the flag of Islam. The true solution to guarantee world security lies in completely annihilating the roots that allow the growth of this notorious sectarian mentality. Iranian opposition leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, with over three decades of experience in the fight against fundamentalism, said in a recent speech in Paris: “As long as the factories of cultural motivations continue to burn the midnight oil for terrorism in Syria, Iraq and Iran, the current threat from terrorist groups that have risen from religious powers against democracy and freedom will never bear any fruit.”

After witnessing vicious measures and fatwas issued by Iran’s mullahs, terrorist groups that have staged vicious attacks against innocent people in the past decade under the name of Islam are all religiously motivated in their crimes. In the past three decades over 100,000 political dissidents have to this day been horrifically massacred by the mullahs ruling Iran. Beheadings, amputating limbs, raping women, executions and hangings of dissidents, even pregnant women in Iran under the name of “moharebe” (enmity against God) are all the sources of motivation for ISIS, al-Qaeda and Shiite militants roaming in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and of course the crimes against innocent people in Paris and San Bernardino in California.

However, what has made the effectiveness and impact of the war against terrorism and fundamentalism more complicated, and resulting in the world completely forgetting about the roots of this crisis, is the newborn phenomenon called ISIS. Bashar Assad and the Iranian regime are profiting the most from ISIS’ atrocities, diverting all attention from the main epicenter of this problem and legitimizing the West’s failure in not supporting the democratic, moderate opposition in Syria and other countries.

The great divide in today’s Muslim world is not as some so conveniently argue as being between Shiite and Sunni, as if this is a battle that has gone for centuries. In fact, the great divide today is between Shiite and Sunni extremists faced against moderate Muslims who have a very different view of Islam on the other.

“…the United States must join forces with moderate Muslims, including Iranian dissidents, who can lead in the all-important ideological fight, promoting a tolerant interpretation of Islam that respects human rights, women’s rights, democracy, and the rule of law,” wrote Governor Tom Ridge, the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in a recent article.

Some are heard backing cooperation with Bashar Assad and Tehran in the fight against ISIS, arguing that the international community needs a ground force such as that of Bashar Assad and the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards to fight ISIS. This is nothing but a deception and plot planned by Tehran and Damascus, and a childish understanding of the current crisis engulfing the Middle East and the fight against terrorism. One is reminded of Iran’s devious misinformation campaign regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction that led to the 2003 U.S.-led campaign of invading Iraq, which itself is another long story. Anyhow, neither the Assad army -- whatever is left of it -- nor Iran’s IRGC are able to take on ISIS and destroy it. If there was actually such a potential the results would have been witnessed by now on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

The united fundamentalist front, with its heart beating in Tehran, is attempting to maintain ISIS and take full advantage of its atrocities in order to divert all public opinion from the root cause of this international dilemma. Reports confirm that Bashar Assad and former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki are closely associated to the Iranian regime. By releasing 2,000 prisoners – all senior al-Qaeda and ISIS commanders – they played a major role in the rise and growth of ISIS. The crackdown carried out by Iran-linked Shiite militias in Iraq targeting the country’s Sunni minority community paved the grounds for ISIS recruiting and boosted its growth efforts immensely.

Although there are differences in mentalities between Sunni and Shiite extremist groups, the roots of all such groups and the existing unit amongst Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist groups lie in Iran under the mullahs’ rule.

Therefore, the correct strategy in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism and extremism is to sack Bashar Assad from power and annihilate the front that has its capital and headquarters stationed in Iran. The regime in Iran must be evicted from Iraq and Syria. The very reasons behind the existence of ISIS are none other than the Iranian regime and Bashar Assad.

The most important necessity in the struggle against terrorism and extremism under the banner of Islam is for Muslims to play a role in the military, and of course the cultural scene to isolate this evil phenomenon.

“The NCRI has emerged as a powerful force for a values-based, mainstream, tolerant, non-violent Islam. A force that a lot of the non-Muslim world has been pleading for a long time. The civilized world needs you now more than ever,” Senator Joseph Lieberman said at a recent conference near Paris.

Without a doubt, the recently formed coalition of Islamic countries in support of democracy against fundamentalism must be supported and strengthened. Only through such a policy can the free world be successful in uprooting terrorism in the name of Islam, be it Sunni or Shiite.

Shahriar Kia is a press spokesman for Iranian opposition in Camp Liberty, Iraq, who advocates for a democratic, secular, nuclear-free Iran. He graduated from North Texas University. His Twitter handle is @shahriarkia

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the army said, the latest attack in 12 weeks of heightened violence.

Since the start of October, Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 130 Palestinians, 81 of whom authorities described as assailants. Most of the others have been killed in clashes with security forces.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the two Palestinians were relatives, one aged 17 and the other, 23.

The surge in violence has been fueled by Palestinians’ frustration over Israel’s 48-year occupation of land they seek for an independent state, and the expansion of settlements in those territories which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Palestinian leaders say a younger generation sees no hope for the future living under Israeli security restrictions and with a stifled economy. The latest round of U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed in April 2014.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

BEIRUT – The leader of Jaysh al-Islam, Zahran Alloush, one of the best known rebel leaders of Syria, died on Friday in a bombing in the region of Eastern Ghouta, the main opposition stronghold outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The circumstances and the timing of his death are still unclear.

The NGO, citing senior leaders within the rebel organization, said that Alloush died along with five other leaders of the group and eight militants during a meeting held in Eastern Ghouta. Dozens of the rebel fighters were also injured in the bombing.

It is unknown whether the bombing was carried out by Syrian regime or Russian aircraft.

Syrian authorities accuse the group of firing rockets from Eastern Ghouta against the center of Damascus.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russian national A. Burkov (no name is given) was on December 13 detained in Tel Aviv airport and placed under arrest on US authorities’ warrant, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s commissioner for human rights, democracy and rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, said in a comment posted on the ministry’s website Friday. "On December 24, the Israeli side, in response to our relevant requests, informed us that the arrest was carried out in line with US competent authorities’ warrant," Dolgov said. READ ALSO Russian pilot in US jail asks Red Cross doctors for help Moscow says ruling of New York court on Bout confirms politicized nature of case Moscow continues protecting rights of Russian national Vladimir Drinkman According to Dolgov, Russia’s Foreign Ministry demands that Israel provide all information on the arrest of Russian A. Burkov and Russian consuls be allowed to visit him. "We decisively condemn this regular case of exterritorial use of US legislation regarding the national of the Russian Federation," he underscored. "This strongly unacceptable practice has already become chronic." "The American authorities keep stubbornly violating relevant norms of international law, infringing upon the legitimate rights and interests of Russian nationals, ignoring the bilateral regulatory and legal framework in the law enforcement sphere," Dolgov said. "We responsibly state once again that this is a dead-end track, which complicates even more the Russian-American relations that are living through hard times through no fault of ours," he said. "We demand that all information on the grounds for arrest of the Russian national be provided immediately and consular access be provided to him urgently," Dolgov underscored. "We hope the Israeli authorities will prevent extradition of A.Y.Burkov to the United States, where he, like many other Russian nationals, would surely be in for politicized and biased ‘justice’," Dolgov said.

BRASILIA – Eight military police officers were arrested Saturday on suspicion of torturing four youths in this Brazilian metropolis, officials said.

The Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State said it ordered the officers’ arrest after finding evidence of their involvement in the alleged torture of four motorcycle-riding young people who were stopped at a police checkpoint on Christmas night.

The youths, whose identities were not revealed, said the police burned them with cigarette lighters, cut them with a hot knife and even forced one of them to perform oral sex on one of the officers, according to media reports.

The incident occurred in Santa Teresa, a neighborhood near downtown Rio de Janeiro that is surrounded by shantytowns, or “favelas,” but is also a popular nightspot.

The youths were returning from a party when they were stopped by police because some members of the group were not wearing helmets, the local press reported.

The authorities confirmed that the detained officers were on-duty at the time with a police pacification unit, or UPP.

Five years ago, the Rio de Janeiro state government adopted a pacification policy that calls for establishing robust public services and a permanent police presence through the UPPs in shantytowns that had previously been dominated by criminal gangs

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican Andres Moreno, considered the most obese man in the world, has died in Ciudad Obregon in the northwestern state of Sonora, just two months after undergoing an operation to lose weight. He was 38.

A message posted by a relative on Moreno’s Facebook page said: “Friends and family, I regret to inform you that Andres Moreno has died, I ask you to pray for him.”

As reported in local media, family members of the deceased said the Sonora native died from a heart attack and problems of peritonitis.

The Mexican, who reached 444 kilos (978 lbs.) at his most obese, underwent last Oct. 28 a surgical procedure known as biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, at Arboledas Hospital’s Gastric Bypass Center.

At the time of the operation, the Mexican weighed 323 kilos (711 lbs.).

On Nov. 25, Moreno had to have an emergency operation to remove a hernia affecting the intestine, Dr. Jose Castañeda told EFE at the time.

Doctors removed almost 80 centimeters (2 feet, 7 inches) of Moreno’s intestine, because the hernia had “strangled” part of that organ, the doctor said.

Almost a month after the initial operation that allowed him to take his first steps by himself after many years of depending on other people to move him around and take care of him, Moreno had lost close to 30 kilos (66 lbs.) and said it had changed his life.

LIMA – An 8-year-old girl died at a Christmas event in the southern Peruvian city of Sicuani when the stage under which she had taken shelter from the rain collapsed on top of her, media outlets reported Friday.

The young victim was taking part in a gift-giving event organized by several companies in Sicuani in the Cuzco region, when a sudden cloudburst sent everyone running for cover, either underneath or on top of the stage set up for the occasion, the state news agency Andina reported.

The weight of the people was too much for the stage, which fell apart, crashed down and killed the little girl, police said.

“It was an accident caused by the number of people who went onstage when it started to rain, a tragic situation that police are investigating to find out who was at fault,” commander Ruben Pantoja told Andina.

A provincial prosecutor ordered the removal of the body and an investigation is currently underway to identify the people responsible.

CARACAS – Two police officers were gunned down outside a police station in Caracas, while two other members of the Venezuelan security forces were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in the Andean nation, authorities said Friday.

A 24-year-old man was set to be arraigned in connection with the deaths of officers Cesar Sanchez and Zaid Peña during an attack in the wee hours of Thursday at a police station in western Caracas, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Three other policemen were wounded in that assault.

The investigation of the attack led police to a home where they found and freed two kidnapping victims, the AG Office said.

Separately, a policeman was fatally shot in front of his family while celebrating Christmas at their home in the central state of Miranda, Union Radio reported.

In the western state of Carabobo, according to Union Radio, an agent of Venezuela’s Sebin intelligence service died after being shot twice by robbers who took his gun.

The Venezuela Violence Observatory, an NGO, says the country has a homicide rate of 82 per 100,000 residents, nearly 10 times the global median. The government cites a figure of 62 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants.

GUATEMALA CITY – Found inside a bag on Monday were two heads that had presumably belonged to two minors whose decapitated bodies were found over the weekend down a ravine in the Guatemalan capital, authorities said.The heads were found on bare ground in a gully that joins La Comunidad in Zone 10 to Las Charcas in Zone 11, paramedics said in postings on social media.Found in the same area Saturday, stuffed in plastic bags and covered with sheets, were the decapitated bodies of the two youths.Authorities have not yet established a motive for the crime.This is not the first such case in this area of the capital in recent months. On Sept. 17, the bodies of an adult woman and a little girl were also found in Las Charcas. The victims were dismembered. The investigation into that crime is still ongoing.Guatemala will end 2015 with almost 6,000 murders, or an average of 16 a day, thus maintaining one of the world’s highest homicide rates with 35 for every 100,000 inhabitants.

RIO DE JANEIRO – An 11-year-old boy and a teenager died and two other people were wounded in a shootout overnight in one of Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling shantytowns, or “favelas,” authorities reported Thursday.

The victims were shot by a group of armed men who entered the slum in several automobiles and opened fire indiscriminately before fleeing, according to a Rio de Janeiro Civil Police report.

The incident occurred in Cidade de Deus, a very poor neighborhood in western Rio made famous by the 2002 film of the same name that told the story of turf wars between rival drug trafficking gangs, who were expelled from the area in 2009 when police set up a permanent station and presence there.

The young boy, identified as Marcos Vinicius dos Santos, was helping his father at a street fruit stand when he was struck by one bullet in the chest.

The boy was taken to a nearby urgent care clinic in the favela but he died from his wound.

A 17-year-old teenage boy was also brought to the same clinic, but he also died, while a woman and another minor with bullet wounds were treated and are out of danger.

According to assorted witnesses, the gunmen entered the favela along a heavily traveled street.

Police suspect that the attack was staged by members of a militia, as parapolice organizations operating in different favelas near Cidade de Deus are known.

The parapolice outfits are comprised mainly of police officers, and they collect “taxes” for “protecting” people living in the areas they control.

After the shootings, many residents of the favela blocked the most important access routes into the area with burning tires and took to the streets for three hours to protest.

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Secret Service agent from the Presidential Protective Division that looks after the security of the President, was robbed of his gun, badge, radio, handcuffs and a USB flash drive in Washington, not far from the headquarters of the agency, reported CNN, citing unnamed sources and a police report.

The theft took place Monday in broad daylight, and from the agent's car, which he had parked on a street in central Washington.

When he returned to his car, the agent noticed the rear window of his vehicle was open, while several items, including a Sig Sauer handgun, an APX6000 radio, handcuffs, a USB flash drive, a Patagonia bag and a Secret Service badge numbered 1266, were missing.

The incident adds to the string of scandals and security lapses that has hit the Secret Service in the last few years leading to the resignation of its director Julia Pierson and dismissal of four other top officials.

One of the most notorious scandals to have hit the law enforcement agency's reputation was in 2012 when 12 Secret Service agents hired prostitutes ahead of Obama's visit to Cartagena, Colombia, for the Summit of the Americas.

The unease caused by these incidents was further aggravated when, for the first time, an armed individual had breached security and entered the White House on Sept. 19 2013.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

BEIJING – Fifty-nine people are missing in a landslide that struck an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua had previously reported 41 people missing in the landslide that buried 33 residential and industrial buildings in the Liuxi industrial park, later revising those figures downward to 27, but then upping the total to 59. Three other people were slightly injured.

At least 900 local residents were evacuated, the news agency said.

The landslide was followed by a gas pipeline explosion that scattered debris over some 100,000 square meters (about 25 acres), Xinhua said.

“I saw a bunch of red earth and mud moving toward the (buildings),” one of the industrial park employees told Xinhua.

Another eyewitness told the local daily Shenzhen Evening News that he saw the van his father was driving buried by the earth and mud and no sign has been found of either the vehicle or his father.

More than 1,500 emergency workers are participating in rescue operations, looking for survivors among the debris, with the help of some 100 fire trucks, 4 drones and 13 search dogs, although they are being hampered by rain, mud and poor night visibility.

Emergency officials said that possible signs of life had been detected in three spots underneath the debris.

Among the buildings buried in the tragedy were two dormitories for workers at the industrial park, the state-run CCTV television network reported.

Ren Jiguang, the assistant director of the Shenzhen public safety office, told CCTV that most of the evacuated people had been transferred to safe areas.

The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper quoted a local resident who said that the landslide was caused by construction activity and that the earth that gave way had been accumulating at the site over the past two years.

Shenzhen is a prosperous industrial city with four border crossing points providing access to neighboring Hong Kong.

BEIRUT – The Israeli air force killed Samir Qantar, an important member of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, considered by many Lebanese to be a “symbol of the anti-Israel resistance.”

The death of the 53-year-old Qantar, who was held in Israeli prisons for almost 30 years and in September had been placed on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorists, occurred on Saturday night and was announced Sunday in a communique by Hezbollah, which said that “aircraft of the Zionist enemy at 10:15 p.m. bombarded a residential building in ... Damascus and killed a fighter, the dean of the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as several Syrian civilians.”

Qantar’s brother Basel also confirmed his death.

Al Manar television, run by Hezbollah, showed the ruins of the building hit in the Israeli airstrike by four missiles, which completely destroyed it.

A few hours after Qantar’s death became known, three rockets were fired from the southern part of Lebanon near Tyre into northern Israel, according to both countries’ militaries. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which injured nobody.

In response, Israeli army aircraft entered Lebanese airspace and carried out several very low flights and simulated attacks in the area from where the rockets were fired.

Meanwhile, the leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, announced that he will give a speech on Monday in which presumably he will discuss Qantar’s death, and the Syrian Parliament met and condemned Qantar’s killing, calling the attack a “terrorist crime.”

Qantar, a member of Lebanon’s Druze community and sentenced to life in prison in Israel in 1979 for participating in the murder of an Israeli police officer and two civilians, was held for almost 30 years – the longest of any Lebanese citizen in Israeli jails – until he was exchanged in a 2008 prisoner swap between Hezbollah and Israel.

Israeli military affairs experts are interpreting the airstrike as a message to Hezbollah and Tehran – which is allied with Hezbollah and the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad – not to open a new armed front on the Golan Heights.

Forced marriages of girls 15 years old or even younger have become commonplace in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan Province, south-eastern Iran, according to a report published on the website of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ).Studies show that underage marriages take place in single parent families or families where the parents are illiterate, drug addicts or psychologically disturbed as well as in families that are struggling with a low income.In Baluchistan, many girls below the age of 15 are forced into marriage, the report said.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house has frozen contacts with the Turkish parliament following the incident with Turkey’s downing a Russian warplane in Syria, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Federation Council’s international committee, said on Friday.

"Our contacts with colleagues in the Turkish parliament, which have been very active until now, has been frozen," he told journalists.

He said the upper house had taken this decision and "sees no point in unfreezing such contacts as long as the Turkish lawmakers are unthinkingly and dogmatically upholding the position taken by the Turkish president." "There is no sense in dialogue in such case," he saud.

Kosachev confirmed that Russian lawmakers had "no contacts" with their Turkish counterparts.

Moreover, Kosachev said he did not even knew his new counterpart, who had taken charge of the Turkish parliament’s international committee after the parliamentary elections in Turkey. "I knew the previous chairman, but I refused to speak with him when he made attempts to contact me," he said.

Earlier, the Russian State Duma lower parliament house said it was suspending contacts with the Turkish parliament. "In the foreseeable future, top officials of the State Duma see no possibility for contacts at the higher parliamentary level between the State Duma and Turkey’s parliament," Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma international committee, said on December 7.

The Russian Su-24M all-weather bomber was on anti-terrorism mission in Syria on November 24, when it was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet. Ankara claimed it downed the Russian warplane after it had violated Turkey’s airspace, while the Russian defense ministry says the bomber was in the airspace over Syria at the time of the attack. Both pilots of the downed warplane ejected safely after they were hit by an air-to-air missile, but the commander was killed in a militants’ gunfire from the ground as he was parachuting.

Two Russia’s Mi-8 helicopters were engaged in the pilots’ search and rescue operation, which reportedly lasted for some 12 hours. One of the helicopters dispatched for the rescue mission came under fire and was subsequently forced to an emergency landing after sustaining damages. One Russian contract serviceman, a marine, was killed during the emergency landing. The rest of the servicemen on board of the helicopter were safely evacuated. The downed Mi-8 helicopter was later destroyed by mortar fire from the territory under control of the militants.

Friday, December 18, 2015

It seems that for all our progress in social and human development, with each new generation radical factions emerge, shaking the world with their ability to convince ordinary people to commit unspeakable atrocities.

We reflect on recent attacks in San Bernardino, carried out by invoking God and religion, with the same bewilderment that confounded us amid the many senseless cruelties of the 21st century. We struggle to understand how such wanton violence could be conceived by human minds and spread like wildfire. And, of course, we set ourselves to right it, asking how we can combat this most current version of extremism and prevent new forms from plaguing the world.

The breed of extremism that we face today is a lethal cocktail of medieval barbarism and modern-day fascism. It is a worldview that shuns political tolerance, promotes misogyny, and, of course, glorifies violence. This specific brand pursues the implementation of Sharia and its draconian punishments. It has never had any connections to Islam, and there is clearly no place in the modern world for such a worldview.

However, it is a worldview with contemporary precedent. Ever since Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, Tehran championed itself as a successful model, which fundamentalists could follow in order to gain stature, power, and sovereign legitimacy. This presents a tantalizing message to Sunni extremists like the Islamic State– why can they not create their own “Islamic” State when Shiite fundamentalists have already done so?

While the conceptual origins of this extremist ideology took shape in the early years of Islam, it only turned into a formidable global force when fundamentalism gripped Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution.

The regime that replaced the Shah—who was also detestable and undemocratic—began exporting Islamic fundamentalism on an unprecedented scale almost overnight. High-profile hostage-takings, bombings, suicide attacks, and assassinations became the norm as the mullahs in Tehran began building their own version of a theocratic state.

In these early stages, Shiite terrorist factions, including militias in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and others were directly formed by the Iranian regime. Without such state sponsorship from Tehran, their clout and influence would have quickly evaporated and they would have vanished. The vicious ideology and proliferative model grew increasingly lethal as its proponents gained access to veritable troves of military, diplomatic, political, and propaganda resources within the sovereign state borders of Iran.

So began the first modern-day “caliphate”—years before al-Qaida’s first attack burned in Yemen, and a full three decades prior to the rise of the Islamic State.

Many assume that Sunni fundamentalism is a unique phenomenon, entirely separate from the dogmas espoused by the Shiite mullahs in Tehran, but the differences are ancillary. In fact, Sunni fundamentalists have found tremendous strength under the political and spiritual umbrella of the Iranian theocracy. Both share the same ideological building blocks: the establishment of a religious state, which implements Sharia by force.

There is considerable evidence that the regime in Tehran has armed and financed Sunni extremists at various times and locations. Not only is Iran a long-standing sponsor of Hamas, but also as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said recently, “ISIS was created by Assad releasing 1,500 prisoners from jail, and Maliki releasing 1,000 people in Iraq who were put together as a force of terror.” Tehran is the known puppet-master of both.

In recent years, the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Sunnis in Iraq and Syria at the hands of the Iranian regime and its proxies has provided a wellspring of sociopolitical sustenance for the Islamic State. Iran is propping this extremist hydra up on all sides, and finding new and creative ways to reinvigorate the beast as our security and intelligence missions stride in its wake. If Iran is one of the linchpins that legitimize the global Islamic extremist threat, what is to be done?

History tells us that nothing is more dangerous for fundamentalism and extremism than democratic and moderate ideals. This has been made clear in Iran, where the regime’s suppressive tactics find their chief targets are the moderate Muslim factions, including the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

To meet with true success, the current military campaigns and intelligence operations in the region must be complemented by the promotion of an interpretation of genuine Islam that is both democratic and tolerant. Only through a nuanced but unambiguously affirmative strategy that provides lasting moral and physical support to the people of Iran and the region in their quest for freedom and moderate leadership will we escape the echoes of history’s darkest narratives.

SANTIAGO – A man identified only as T.P. has been ordered held without bail after a thief who stole his cellphone and found child pornography on the device reported the discovery, Chilean authorities said Thursday.

Prosecutors charged T.P. with sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography.

The theft occurred last week in Santiago’s Renca district.

The thief, a 30-year-old man, discovered the porn, including images of child rape, and decided to deliver the phone’s memory card to an organization that works with at-risk children.

“I know that you work with children and I want to give you this card. I stole it, but when I reviewed it I saw that it contained child pornography,” the thief told the organization, according to a report in Las Ultimas Noticias newspaper.

The organization reported the case to police, which led to the detention of T.P. once investigators verified that he was the individual appearing in the videos.

The suspect had 410 photographs and videos with sexual content, some of them including his partner’s 8-year-old daughter.

CULIACAN, Mexico – The burned bodies found inside a van in Navolato, a city in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, three weeks ago are those of Australians Dean Lucas and Adam Russell Coleman, officials said Tuesday.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

HRANA News Agency – Foad Khanjani, a former student of industrial management at Isfahan University who was expelled because of his Bahai beliefs, has been released at the end of his four-year sentence.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), he was arrested in Tehran on March 2, 2010, and taken to the offices of the Ministry of Intelligence, released and rearrested, and arrested for the third time on April 27, 2010, when he was sent to Evin Prison.

His arrests followed the widespread unrest in Iran following the announcement of national election results. Authorities initially tried to claim that Bahais had a hand in stirring up the protests. His sister Leva Khanjani, another student excluded from education for being a Bahai, was also arrested after the election unrest, along with her husband Babak Mobasher. She was arrested on January 3, 2010, and sentenced to two years in prison. She was released on June 24, 2014.

Mr. Khanjani was released on bail on May 8, pending his trial which was conducted on December 11, 2010. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison, by Judge Maqiseh, and this sentence was confirmed in the review court by Judge Mouhed.

His lawyer attempted to appeal this sentence to the Supreme Court, but the lawyer was confronted with threats from the Ministry of Intelligence. Mr. Khanjani began his sentence in Evin Prison on January 17, 2012, but on August 5 of that year he was transferred to Raja’i Shahr prison. From late September that year he was in need of urgent hospital treatment for a cyst in the abdomen, which was denied until early November. On March 2, 2013, he was denied family visits for refusing to wear prison uniform.

Foad Khanjani’s father, Ala’eddin Khanjani, known as Niki, was also arrested following the election protests, and again in August 2014, apparently because he was running an optician’s shop, and such businesses had been added — unannounced — to the list of sectors in which Bahais are forbidden to work. He was summoned to appear at Bench 5 of the court at Evin Prison in Tehran on August 10, 2015. Bench 5 has specialised in the persecution of Bahais. So far as I know, his sentence has not yet been announced.

Niki Khanjani’s father Jamalledin Khanjani is one of the seven ‘Yaran’ (Bahai national facilitators) who are now in the eighth year of 10-year sentences for their services to the Bahai community.